Volume 8, Plate X / Entomology (Insects)

Lamellicornes

1. Sacred Egyptian Beetle. Entirely black with a rather shining surface save the obscure elytra, the front of the head rough with shallow punctures and bearing two small tubercles between the eyes, the convex thorax margined and crenulated behind. The elytra bear only scattered punctures, the anterior tibiae armed with four long teeth; common throughout southern Europe along the Mediterranean and across Africa from Egypt to the Cape, it was venerated by the ancient Egyptians as sacred to the sun.
2. Ontho­phagus Dillwynii. Three to three and a half lines long, brassy black and covered with fine short hairs, the thorax thickly granulated with two central tubercles and one near each margin, the elytra dull greyish yellow clouded with black and striated. The under parts and legs are black with a metallic tinge, the male bearing an elongate horn on the head and the female two arched cross ridges; found near Gravesend and Swansea.
3. Phanæus lancifer. About an inch and a half long and over an inch broad, very thick and massive with the thorax occupying half its bulk, the black head armed with a long recurved horn and the clypeus with two projecting teeth. The upper side is fine violet with greenish reflections, the deeply excavated thorax rising behind into a notched quadrate prominence, the elytra furrowed and tubercled, the under parts shining black tinted with violet.
4. Phanæus carnifex. Finely coloured, the head golden green armed with a long slender backward-curved black horn, the large flattened thorax golden green at the sides and bright copper on the rough disk, ending behind in acute angles. The elytra are beautiful green sometimes glossed with blue, rough and bearing several raised lines, the under side and thighs brilliant bronzed green; found in considerable plenty in various parts of North America.
5. Geotrupes ster­corarius. Entirely black above tinted on the margins with violet or brassy, the thorax without punctures on the disk but impressed toward the sides with a short central line behind. The elytra bear deep striae with smooth convex intervals, the under side and legs steel blue beautifully glossed with purple or green; it is the most common species of its genus in the northern parts of Britain.